Wireless communication devices include phones, computers, intelligent machines, or some other apparatus with a wireless transceiver. Wireless communication networks include base stations, distributed antenna systems, or some other type of wireless access point to exchange wireless signals with the wireless communication devices. The wireless communication devices and the wireless communication networks exchange electromagnetic signals over the air to support services like mobile Internet access, audio/video streaming, user data messaging, and the like.
Some wireless communication networks and devices use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to exchange wireless data. In OFDM communication systems, multiple transmission modes may be used to provide wireless signaling to the various wireless communication devices. Accordingly, a device that is located in a first location may be serviced with a first transmission mode from a base station but then a second transmission mode when located in a second position. These transmission modes may include multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) or spatial multiplexing, which is often used in communications near the base station. Transmission modes may also include beamforming, which increases transmission power and is often used in communications further away from the base station.
In some instances, as wireless communication devices move within the geographic region supported by the base station, the base station may provide better communication connectivity using beamformed signals over spatial multiplexed signal, such as when located at a cell edge or in areas or high interference from other base stations. Using beamforming, the base station can use feedback data from the wireless communication device to adjust transmit parameters to provide improved robustness of data transmission or increased data rates. In other instances, the base station may provide better communication connectivity using spatial multiplexing to maintain the communication, such as when the wireless communication device is moving quickly or changing speed quickly, in which less feedback data is required. Unfortunately, current techniques of using feedback data from the wireless communication device to adjust transmit parameters are not efficient or effective.